Mark Cooper relieved as Swindon Town go top

Swindon Town boss Mark Cooper was left to rue missed first-half chances as his side battled back from two goals down to go top of Sky Bet League 1 after an entertaining 2-2 draw at Fleetwood Town.

The Robins dominated the first 45 minutes with Nathan Byrne a constant menace down the right as Fleetwood struggled to find a foothold.

Swindon could have been ahead after just five minutes as John Swift, making his debut on loan from Chelsea, blasted wide after a period of sustained pressure.

The visitors thought they had made that pressure tell just before the quarter-hour mark when Jeff Hughes caught the heels of Andy Williams inside the box.

Michael Smith went for the bottom left corner with the subsequent penalty but Fleetwood goalkeeper Chris Maxwell made a routine save to preserve the status quo.

The Robins' luck was not in as Harry Toffolo rattled the woodwork before the 45 minutes were up, while Fleetwood were limited to long-range efforts, Josh Morris going closest but failing to test Wes Foderingham.

Fleetwood took the lead early in the second half. Antoni Sarcevic broke through the middle and Jamie Proctor backheeled the ball into the path of Morris whose low shot hit the target.

It got better for Fleetwood just before the hour-mark when Morris picked his spot at the far post following Proctor's cross.

Swindon finally got their break with 20 minutes remaining. Toffolo broke down the right, dinking a ball to Williams and his blast deflected off Fleetwood skipper Mark Roberts and past Maxwell.

The home side looked like hanging on for the win until Ben Gladwin sent in a curling ball from the left, Louis Thompson applying a stinging finish at the back post to level with two minutes remaining.

Cooper admitted he could not believe seeing his side trail after the start they made.

He said: "At 2-0 down we didn't panic, we just carried on playing.

"After probably the most one-sided first half of football I've seen we hadn't taken advantage.

"We were all too aware of what could happen.

"We went out in the second half knowing there couldn't be any hard luck stories, we had to make it happen.

"We didn't, we didn't deal with the boy running into the box twice and found ourselves 2-0 down from nothing.

"We'd played an hour and were asking how on earth we were 2-0 down.

"But we picked ourselves up a little bit and we got back in and got the point.

"We got to 2-2 and there was still time to take another chances.

"Then we were looking for killer passes. If we'd been a bit more patient we might have been able to get that."